cho Road now, and the
Good Samaritan could scarcely bear to part with him even for a day.

But he shook his head happily. No, no; Peter was coming over in the
morning to look at the north field, and they would just row out as far
as Wanda Island and hear the pipes, when the _Inverness_ went past, and
they would come back and stay at home with Aunt Kirsty like a pair of
sensible old bodies.

Roderick managed to catch Lawyer Ed in the office for a few moments in
the morning and reported his failure. His chief called him many hard
names, as he rushed out to catch a passer-by and make him come to the
picnic, and Roderick locked the office door and went down to the wharf.
There lay the _Inverness_, her gunwale sinking to the water's edge
under her joyous freight, banners flying from every place a banner
could be flown, and the band, and Harry Lauder's piper brother making
the town and the lake and the woods beyond ring with music.

Immediately after Roderick's disappointing message had been delivered,
Lawyer Ed rushed down Main Street and spied Afternoon Tea Willie
driving the Baldwin girls down town to buy some almond cream to take to
the picnic, in case of sunburn. And in his usual high-handed way, he
had hailed them, sent the girls home on foot, and the young man
spinning out to the McRae farm with stern commands not to dare return
without Old Angus.

So when Roderick was standing on the wharf talking to Dr. Archie Blair,
all resplendent in his kilt he was amazed to see coming down Main
Street, the smartest buggy in the town, and in it Alf. Wilbur, driving
his father, and more amazing still, by his side sat old Peter, with his
fiddle in a case across his knee. They drew up at the edge of the
wharf with a splendid flourish, and Afternoon Tea Willie with his
innate good manners, sprang out to help the two old men alight with as
great deference as if they had been a couple of charming young ladies
just come to town.

Roderick sprang forward and caught his father's hand as he stepped out,
laughing in sheer delight. His eyes were misty with deep feeling. In
the first quick glance he had turned upon the faces of the two old men,
smiling in a half-ashamed, half-pleased way, like a couple of boys
caught running away from school; Roderick had been struck with their
strange resemblance. His father's refined face and his white hair had
once made an absolute contrast to poor Old Peter's bloated countenance,
but with the